• The Past is such a curious Creature

    To look her in the Face

    A Transport may receipt us

    Or a Disgrace —


    Unarmed if any meet her

    I charge him fly

    Her faded Ammunition

    Might yet reply.

  • The pattern of the sun

    Can fit but him alone

    For sheen must have a Disk

    To be a sun —

  • The pedigree of honey

    Does not concern the bee ;

    A clover, any time, to him

    Is aristocracy.

  • The Pile of Years is not so high

    As when you came before

    But it is rising every Day

    From recollection's Floor

    And while by standing on my Heart

    I still can reach the top

    Efface the mountain with your face

    And catch me ere I drop

  • The Popular Heart is a Cannon first —

    Subsequent a Drum —

    Bells for an Auxiliary

    And an Afterward of Rum —


    Not a Tomorrow to know its name

    Nor a Past to stare —

    Ditches for Realms and a Trip to Jail

    For a Souvenir —

  •    CAN there on earth, my Celia, be

    A price I would not pay for thee?

    Yes, one dear precious tear of thine

    Should not be shed to make thee mine.

  • The Province of the Saved

    Should be the Art — To save —

    Through Skill obtained in Themselves —

    The Science of the Grave


    No Man can understand

    But He that hath endured

    The Dissolution — in Himself —

    That Man — be qualified


    To qualify Despair

    To Those who...

  • The pungent atom in the Air

    Admits of no debate —

    All that is named of Summer Days

    Relinquished our Estate —


    For what Department of Delight

    As positive are we

    As Limit of Dominion

    Or Dams — of Ecstasy —

  • The rainbow never tells me

    That gust and storm are by,

    Yet is she more convincing

    Than Philosophy.


    My flowers turn from Forums —

    Yet eloquent declare

    What Cato couldn't prove me

    Except the birds were here!

  • The Red — Blaze — is the Morning —

    The Violet — is Noon —

    The Yellow — Day — is falling —

    And after that — is none —


    But Miles of Sparks — at Evening —

    Reveal the Width that burned —

    The Territory Argent — that

    Never yet — consumed —